Woman says hospital overcrowding could be impacting her husband’s health

RIVERVIEW, N.B. – A Riverview woman says a cramped hospital room is doing more harm than good for her husband while he waits to get transferred into permanent care.

Brenda Magee says her husband, David, suffers from dementia. He was admitted to the Moncton Hospital in August when his condition took a turn for the worse.

Since then, he has been transferred to different rooms throughout the facility. In the fall, he ended up in the middle of a room in one of five beds.

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The room was only designed for four beds.

Magee says she’s concerned for her husband’s well-being.

“I think it confuses him a lot,” she said. “He’s confused with the disease as it is and with all the congestion in there he does get confused.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I think it confuses him a lot," she said. "He's confused with the disease as it is and with all the congestion in there he does get confused."

Unfortunately, Magee situation is a common one.

Staff at The Moncton Hospital say it illustrates the challenges of dealing with a growing, aging population.

“We’re using every opportunity we have to physically put someone in additional space we’re using,” said Dr. Serge Melanson, Chief of Ataff at The Moncton Hospital.

“We have well over 380 beds but at any given time we may have 20 to 25 per cent of those beds occupied by citizens of our community that are frail and often elderly who don’t have the capacity to be placed inside a special care home or a nursing home.”

READ MORE: New Brunswick seniors’ care to be discussed

Seniors rights advocates say greater efforts need to be made to get seniors permanent care.

“We are in a horrific storm right now and it’s out of control and it’s not healthy for our seniors to lay in the hospital when they need to be in a home setting,” said Cecile Cassista.

In the meantime, Magee’s family hopes something will open up soon.

“I never though we’d be there – that wasn’t our retirement,” she said.